Tested: Norco Sight C7.2

Norco have been present in the mountain bike game for a long time, but until the past two or three years they had shrunk away from having lots of market-leading bikes, and become one of the ‘other’ Canadian bike brands. But recently, Norco have come out with great new platforms across just about every mountain bike segment – not to mention their gravel, adventure and cyclocross bikes. Their Aurum downhill line is complemented by the highly capable Range all-mountain bikes, and the Revolver we reviewed last issue is by far one of the best-handling XC race bikes we’ve tested recently.

In-between those two, we have the Sight. At 140mm of travel with a 150mm front fork, the Sight range has both alloy and carbon models to suit a range of price points, but all with the same Killer B 27.5 optimised handling and design philosophy. The Sight C7.2 ticks pretty much every box when it comes to a versatile trail bike. It has a short back end, quality suspension components from RockShox and Cane Creek, a 1x drivetrain, Reverb dropper post, strong DT wheels and capable Schwalbe tyres. And it’s such a bright orange your look on the trail is set to be on point.

Norco claim that the Sight “powers riders to the top of the steepest climbs and delivers grin-inducing playfulness and confidence-inspiring capability on the downs.” Which is a pretty big ask – basically they are saying that it’s an awesome mountain bike to ride up hill and back down. Sounds good.

Initial Impressions

One of the cool things about bikes is that each brand really is different. What might look like small changes on paper often end up pretty major on the trail. There are lots of great 130-150mm travel bikes on the market now, which is awesome. Trail bikes should be the most versatile bike you can own, and it’s excellent to have the choice from so many manufacturers right now. But looking at the Sight a few things stand out – the head angle is appropriately slack, the BB isn’t sky scraper tall, and the reach is fairly short for a given size. The frame looks meaty but not over-built, and you can fit a proper sized bottle in there, meaning short rides don’t have to be accompanied by a backpack.

The frame itself sports some neat looking construction. The carbon main frame allows for internal routing of derailleur cable (or cables), a brake hose and a dropper post. The entry and exit ports are pretty neat and it’s easy enough to get the lines to run cleanly with two ports either side of the frame. The bike comes with spares in the box and some blanks if you did something like removed the dropper – which would be odd. Best of all? All the internals ran silent for the entire test.

There’s a frame protector on the lower side of the down tube, and even a spare hanger bolt screwed into the frame. The Sight uses a Syntace X-12 142×12 system which sits really flush at the drop out to save collecting debris or catching on the trail. The stubby hanger is designed to break off at the alloy connecting bolt, hopefully saving both the mech, the hanger, and your wheel and even frame. It’s a great feature having the spare built in to the frame.

Norco use ‘Smooth Core’ and ‘Armor Lite’ technologies in their frames… which means their production process keeps carbon compaction optimised and clean, and that the carbon lay up uses a strong resin and high quality parts to make for a carbon frame that is very impact resistant.

The same Gravity Tune mentioned in the Aurum and Revolver reviews lives here too. Basically, Norco want a rider on a small frame to have the same ride experience as a rider on an XL, and they manipulate tubing sizes, and the length of the swing arm, to maintain the ride quality across the range. Not many people do this, but when you think about it, it just makes.

The SRAM 1x group set is what just about any Australian trail rider would want. Although chain security on 1x groups with dedicated chain rings is excellent, Norco spec a chain guide that mounts to the front derailleur mount. Before I started riding I set the Schwalbe tyres up tubeless. The rims were taped and ready to go, but I did pull this bike from the demo fleet and the rear Nobby Nic never sealed properly as the tyre was already half worn.

Suspension setup was straight forward, for the fork. The rear takes a lot more precision, time and patience. And note taking. This is my third interaction with a Cane Creek DB Inline shock, and although I thought I had it setup well after starting everything from way open, it was some final tuning on a rainy day with the help of Chris Panozzo that got it truly dialled. It’s worth heading to canecreek.com for their base tunes and really paying attention to your setup. This goes for any bike really, as a poor shock tune is the easiest way to ruin a good bike.

On The Trail

The first place I rode this bike was at Hollybank in Tasmania, a quick cruise on the lower trails lead straight into shuttling a couple of runs of Juggernaut. That trail would be one of the longest purpose built mountain bike trails I’ve ridden in Australia, and while the top is majorly gravity fed, the lower sections need you to work hard for your speed. It was the perfect testing ground for the Sight.

Being able to comfortably ride trails blind should be the true test for trail bikes and all-mountain bikes. The Sight has the right geometry to be agile, and stable. By marrying a fairly short 431mm stiff back end with the lowish (341mm) bottom bracket, the Sight is pushed into corners easily – the wide bars and short stem help keep the handling precise – more than you’d expect for the 66.9 degree head angle. So it was hard to make the Sight feel uncomfortable when being pushed. It’s worth noting that Norco have specced the Sights and Ranges with 10mm longer forks in 2016, and the 150/140 combo on the Sight felt ample for the trail riding I did while testing it. You can read more about the geometry, sizing, and spec of the Sight on the Norco website.

In terms of settling into the background, the SRAM 1x setup did just that. I would think about changing out the stock Jagwire housing though down the track – quality Shimano SP41 housing and a polymer-coated cable is a huge increase in performance for about $60 at your next service.

The tyre setup with the Magic Mary on the front and Nobby Nic on the back is fairly aggressive – but it really came into its own in some fairly soft conditions down around Blue Derby, especially on the middle section of the Atlas trail. Depending what your trails and riding look like, this setup might not be for you – but it was excellent down there.

DT are well-known for wheels and the 350 hubs laced to the E512 rims were strong, and gave the tyres some good shape – although as always I think wider would be better in the rim department. One unfortunate flat, and another, then another, meant one ride finished on a rim and tyre – but the rim stayed true. DT have had their wheel durability well tested in the past, and the E512 are an excellent choice in this wheel set.

While people are used to saying that Norco’s ride small, on the large I tested everything felt like it was in the right place. 760mm bars might be narrow to some, but I never hit any knuckles on trees. The grips and saddle were ok, but these sort of contact points are personal – run what works for you. As with any high-end bike, you don’t want to be buying this on numbers alone – go to your trusted Norco dealer for fit advice and setup.

I found the Sight to be a really capable trail bike, it took anything I was riding in its stride, and really climbed acceptably too. Locking out the fork and climbing out of the saddle felt awkward, but the suspension setting on the ‘climb’ setting on the rear shock, and the low gearing, made for seated climbing that was easy to get along with. Its easily the trail bike that an XC rider could get along with, as it’s not overly heavy or too slack. But at the same time, it’s got a great suspension and wheels package. The only drawback to the Sight might be understanding what it is and what it isn’t. A few times following super fast riders there was certainly a lot more concentration involved in keeping in one piece – but riding fast on technical terrain requires that. The suspension and handling feels really capable, but it’s not the same bike as the 160mm travel Range, which is really where you should be looking for more aggressive riding, with stiffer forks and a heavier built frame matched with longer travel. But as a believer that trail bikes should do up and down equally well, then Norco have built a winner.

Our Take on the Norco Sight

According to Norco, they set out to create a bike that would have riders smiling on the climbs and the descents. By fine-tuning the geometry of the Sight frame, Norco have made a bike that responds well to rider input, but won’t buck you if you make a mistake. In the case of the Sight C7.2 that we tested, they also backed that up with a solid parts kit that hits all the performance boxes you want. At over $7000 you wouldn’t want to be looking at a bike that needed upgrades, and Norco have made sure this bike is set to rip right from the shop.

The best thing about the Sight C7.2 is that it sits in a well-thought out series of bikes. You can get a more smartly dressed version in carbon, or something a little lower budget. Plus, you can get alloy models with the same ride characteristics. But for the riders who want to go harder, the Range keeps many of the same attributes, and given how well the Sight pedals, if you were more concerned about descending prowess, looking at a Range would make a lot of sense. Otherwise, the Sight might be just the trail bike for you.

Photos: Tim Bardsley-Smith and Damian Breach